The dust has settled. What do you do after Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

 

Who is the shopper?

The holiday shopper this year is equipped to be smarter and more selfless than ever. According to a RetailMeNot report, the average consumer spends $57 on holiday gifts for their best friends, while they spend a staggering $196 on their significant other and $330 on children. Also, more than 80% of consumers use up to 6 different sources of online and offline information to find the best holiday deals.

Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday vs. Boxing Day

Historically, Canadians have spread their spending across the entire holiday season, purchasing their gifts on multiple big deal days (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Boxing Day). The prominence of online shopping has shifted preferences towards Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

With Boxing Day slowly fading away, many retailers may put all their eggs in the Black Friday basket and hope sales carry them through the entire holiday season, but consumers have shown that they also shop before, in between, and after the big deal days.

Consumers tend to place their hopes on big deal days like Black Friday and Boxing Day, but they don’t do all of their holiday shopping on these days. Holiday purchases can begin way back in September and go all the way through after the holidays. In fact, 17% of shoppers plan to begin their shopping after Black Friday weekend. The key word here is begin — holiday shopping is a process that can last months, which gives your brand plenty of opportunities to target customers.

What to Do After Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Tip 1: Make a good first impression.

If not for the extra sales, you can use the contact with the new customers as an opportunity to make a great first impression. Link to your social media and provide a unique experience that will create a lasting memory. Setting up your brand identity early will set you up for other interactions with consumers and could lead to sales later in the season.

Tip 2: Use your purchases to get more purchases.

It’s likely that Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend was a huge source of new customers, attracted by outrageous sales, but you need to make them more than one-time purchasers. Use email receipts/confirmations to nurture your customers. For example, if a customer has just bought a product geared towards moms, your email could say, “Check Mom off the list, how ‘bout something for Dad?”

We’ve already seen that people will extend their purchases through to very late in the year, but is there strategy to when and how big your discounts should be?

Tip 3: Keep your deals going on through to the new year.

As for timing, deals should last throughout the entire holiday period. It is, of course, important to be extravagant on the big deal days, but the other days are just as important. Customers who have procrastinated their shopping will flock to great deals on less popular days. If the brand aligns with it, these deals will also create a perception of consistent value.

Tip 4: Don’t over-discount your product.

More than half of Canadian internet users are persuaded to make a holiday purchase by discounts of 11% – 33%. Lower discounts may not provide enough incentives and greater discounts may seem too good to be true, making customers question the real value of the product.

According to a Send Owl report, 50% is also very popular among consumers (HALF OFF has a nice ring to it!). The same report also alludes to the ‘Rule of 100’, which suggests when to label your discounts by the percentage versus the fixed dollar amount (20% off a $20 shirt sounds better than $5 off).